Book Two: The Sickness/Chapter Nine
The ninth chapter of Flashfire212's Book Two: The Sickness Chapter Nine: Military Suprises Rouge positioned herself into the sniper’s point at the top of the walls set up for her. She could see Shade being helped into position by Bianca and Maria, his little sisters. She gave a faint smile, then turned to the task at hand: prepping her multi-ammunition rifle for combat. Loading in a sniper round, she sat, ready to fire. She saw faint movements as Comet’s advance squads set out, ready to light the powder keg of a forest in front of her. Suddenly, there was a voice in her ear. “The surgery is starting, and the recon bots are back. The enemy is 15 minutes away. I repeat, one-five minutes away. I am handing over to battlefield command.” Ronan sounded like he was made for this sort of announcing, or at least good at it. Rouge watched as Shadow positioned himself near the head of the Chaotix strike group, next to Knuckles and Sonic. She found herself drawn to the point where the enemy was going to be coming from. Not surprisingly, she couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, because these guys were professionals. Quickly, she checked her watch. Barely two minutes had passed. Rouge shook her head as Cream flew past to check the progress of the enemy. Suddenly, a very familiar voice was in her ear. “The enemy is in range sooner than expected. Burn teams, you are cleared to start the blaze,” Sally ordered, and Rouge could see a young squirrel muscle her way into the pack of Chaotix. As Rouge watched, a massive plume of fire covered her view. She smiled. That was the enemy slowed down for a few hours as the pyrokinetics did what they did best. Jacob instantly flew into damage control, trying to lessen the damage that his people took. Quickly, it was clear to him that there was pyrokinetics keeping the flaming barrier up within that area. “I need some elite soldiers to join me in an attack on the pyrokinetic soldiers that are keeping this barrier up!” he roared. “That won’t be necessary.” Jacob’s head arched around to see Enna, his girlfriend and distant member of the Knuckles clan beside him. “Oh, it’s just you, Enna. Look, it’s easier that I have soldiers take out these pyrokinetics before they decimate our people. Face it, we’re in trouble.” “I am a pyrokinetic, and I know how to throw barriers like this up, and out of the way. Get those elite soldiers to form up in two lines, then have them follow me.” “What are you going to do?” Jacob asked, shocked by Enna’s darkness. “I’m gonna make a clear path for the army. Get everyone ready to pass through, then everyone who can fly to do so. Is that clear?” “Yes’m.” Jacob knew when Enna was like this; there was no questioning her. Enna turned and walked straight over to the fire, sticking a hand into it on each side of her body, before parting her hands. The entire wall of fire separated, then held there as she started walking through, the gap widening as she walked. Quickly, the soldiers, the Dark Acolytes in particular, raced through the gap, staying behind Enna as she walked. Ronan watched as Dimitri placed the anesthetic mask over Will’s mouth: he was going to be defrosted for the procedure, and would need all the pain relief he could get while the surgery was underway, as well as afterwards. Tails pulled out the set of surgical tools, while Ronan checked the tactical array on the Monolith’s monitors, before pulling out the Inhibitor Gates. With one hand, he picked up the laser scalpel beside him and made the first cut towards the spine. Knuckles saw the passage open, and was instantly worried. What kind of fire wielder can move fire like that? he thought. That question was answered as Enna walked out, making a sudden hand motion that launched a whip of flames out of the inferno to send one of Blood’s allies flying. Instantly, Vector had her, but he was send flying by a single fearsome punch. Rapidly, Dark Legionnaires and Dark Acolytes raced in, with Jacob himself amongst them. Knuckles found himself punching back a trio of Acolytes at once, then having to block a stab from a spear as Jacob raced in to attack. Instantly, Shadow knocked Jacob away with a single Chaos Spear, then ducked under a returned shot. Jacob then closed his eyes, still not having learned his lesson, powering up to Super. The battle was hopeless. Dark Legionnaires were shooting wildly at anyone not in their robes, including the badniks amongst them. Kyle flew overhead, using beams of Chaos Energy from his hands to send soldiers into the inferno, which a flying badniks stopped, then fought back with rockets. Rouge and Shade fired away, as reinforcements for both sides raced forwards. Then Shadow removed his inhibitor rings, being surrounded in a flaming aura, before racing in and attacking Jacob, sending him flying. Jacob dropped his spear, and raced back in, as the fight raged around them. Ronan finished implanting the second gate into Will when the battlefield array beeped. Quickly, he let Dimitri and Tails get ready as he spun to see the tactical array showing disarray. He swore under his breath. Things were not going well out there. Knuckles swung again and again. Even the arrival of the firestarters wasn’t good, because everything they threw at the Dark Legionnaires, Enna threw back. Knuckles leapt, gliding to smash into a flying badnik, only to be struck by a flying energy-coated arrow from a Dark Archer. A green and gold blur raced past, slicing down soldiers as they got up, as Rouge and Shade’s guns kept up the fire on any soldiers dumb enough to stay still. A ball of energy from a Dark Legionnaire’s rifle struck the blur, revealing Manic with his sword, while another one pulled out a Chaos Siphon and started draining Shadow. Shadow screamed as the aura of energy cloaking his body was drained away, but an expert shot from Shade left the Siphon wielder unable to hold a pen, let alone a gun, cleanly knocking off three fingers. Shadow lashed out against Jacob with a flashing blast, which constantly changed colour, but Enna blocked it with a blast of black fire. Knuckles created an energy shield, which allowed him to be pushed backwards rather than be injured by a badnik’s guns, ending up with his back to Sonic. “Here’s hoping Ronan has this covered,” he yelled “I know!” Sonic yelled back, “It’s getting hot here!” Dimitri’s slender dreadlock-tentacles tenderly placed the sixth gate within Will’s spine, taking care not to come into contact with the energy fields being emitted by Will’s body. Ronan and Tails were examining the other gates in front of the tactical array. “Oh, crud. We are in trouble.” Ronan muttered, lifting up the cuff of his glove to reveal a small pack of Will’o Wisps. “Reinforce the allied faction within that fight, they need the support,” he commanded, the Will’o Wisps turning red, signaling attack mode, before flying off. Ronan turned to the others. “We need to get the other gate into him ASAP, because this fight is going down the toilet.” “Ronan, how will getting the gates in speed any of this up?” Dimitri asked. “That’s my secret, but it needs to be done pronto.” Ronan’s hands reached onto the table of supplies, withdrawing a single orb. At everyone’s confusion, he then flew up to place the orb within the lights, pointing at Will. He connected two cables to the back of it, before talking into the radio. “Rouge, Shade, on my signal, plug the tubes I gave you into your rifles.” “Rouge, Shade, on my signal, plug the tubes I gave you into your rifles.” Ronan’s voice came out clearly in Shade’s helmet speakers. “Copy that, Command.” Rouge responded, jarring Shade’s nerves slightly. “I hear you, Commander.” Shade called, grabbing the ultra-thin tube and examining it. There was nothing spectacular about it, just appearing to be an ordinary phone line casing. However, Shade didn’t trust his instincts this time. He slowly looked it over, but there was nothing special he could see about this tube. Knuckles, Sonic and Blood fought as a team, Blood replacing Tails as one of Knuckles living punching gloves. Both hedgehogs had their spines outstretched, allowing the punches thrown to connect from a further distance. He could see Vicious the Dark and Comet lashing out in all directions, while Sally’s daughter Amy, better known as Swift, created a tornado to send people flying. Nowhere near enough firepower. Nowhere enough help. Great, he thought sarcastically, throwing Sonic straight into a tight pack of soldiers, sending them flying like tenpins. Shadow dashed past, throwing Jacob and Enna backwards towards a set of trees. Knuckles threw Blood straight at Vicious, who kicked him like a soccer ball, making him bounce like a pinball from tree to tree, knocking down anyone who got in his way. Suddenly, a swarm of red orbs came from the Monolith. They charged in head-first, striking all the Dark Legion soldiers they got a lock on at over one hundred kilometers an hour, brutally injuring those they hit in the limbs and killing those they hit in the head. However, even their arrival could not sway the balance of power from Jacob’s hands. Dimitri and Tails placed the vital Eighth Inhibitor Gate into Will’s spine, avoiding burning themselves on the massive amount of Chaos Energy being emitted from Will’s body. Ronan lifted his glove to flick a switch on the control band under the cuff of the glove, activating the Chaos Siphon he had positioned within the lights. Instantly, an orange beam leapt from the pod onto Will, absorbing all of the red-gold energy coating his body. Instantly, Ronan had a radio in his hand. “Rouge! Shade! Plug those tubes in NOW!” he bellowed. “Rouge! Shade! Plug those tubes in NOW!” Ronan’s bellowing jolted Shade into action, plugging the tube into the special port at the rear of the gun stock before checking what it said about available ammunition. The information on his helmet HUD was marked infinite. He fired once into the crowd, with a red-gold energy beam emerging, spinning rapidly for maximum armor-piercing punch. It struck a Dark Legionnaire with a rocket launcher straight in the chest, sending him straight through the trunk of a tree. He saw another bolt lance out and strike an enemy sniper trying to get a clear shot at him. Suddenly, they all heard a massive shout all over the battlefield. “RETREAT!” Jacob roared, with all able-bodied soldiers running behind him and Enna. There was a second roar from the defenders, cheered by the sudden retreat. Sonic and Knuckles pulled on the headsets offered to them by Vector. “Yo, Ronan, Sal, we’ve got a lot of prisoners here, what are we going to do with them?” Sonic asked. Sally’s response was quick. “Take them prisoner for interrogation, rehabilitation and eventual release back into society,” she commanded. A similar order was sent all the way from Westopolis for Shadow, Shade and Rouge. The three of them gathered up a small set of officers and soldiers to be marched down to Westopolis for GUN’s investigation. Another third of the people were gathered up by the Chaotix for Sally. However, Ronan had a different command for the Will O’ Wisps. “Gather a small handful of officers for questioning. Kill all the rest.” Sally stood staring at Ronan as he raced into the Tactical Control Room, struggling to contain herself. “You’re a monster!” She screamed. Her other daughter Jayme tried to calm her down, but Ronan motioned for Jayme to stop. “I’m a weapon’s developer and dealer as well as a tactician, Princess. I hear that every day,” he taunted as he swaggered off, leaving Sally there quivering with anger. Characters Category:Fanfic Chapters